Improvement in the muzzle of fire-arms for cutting off cartridges



C. H BRADLEY.

Cartridge Cutter.

N0.'34,235; Patented Jan. 28, I862.

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v NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

(l. H. BRADLEY, OF WESTOHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,235, dated January 28, 1862.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CALEB H. BRADLEY, of Westchester, in the county of Chester and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fire-Arms; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- The figure is intended to represent a portion of the end or muzzle of a gun-barrel, with a view of my invention at the end or top thereof. w

This invention relates to forming at the top or muzzle of the gun-barrel a cutter for the purpose of cutting, tearing, or breaking the cartridges, as will be hereinafter fully shown and described.

To enable those skilled in the art to understand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

The accompanying drawing represents, as before stated, the upper end or muzzle of a gun-barrel. A portion or the whole of the end of the same is supplied with teeth or otherwise rendered rough. It may be dressed to a thin edge by filing a bevel thereon, which may be either on the out or in side surface of the barrel. Upon the portion thus dressed to an edge there is cut, by means of a fine saw or other suitable instrument, small teeth, similar to the teeth of a sickle. The teeth may also be cut around the end of the barrel without beveling the same or reducing it to an edge, and if a gutter be first formed around the end of the barrel, two rows of teeth may be thus formed.

Letter A on the drawing will show the beveled part with the teeth out in the edge of the same. 1

Letter-B will show that part of the barrel that is grooved, having two rows of teeth-one row around the inner and one row around the outer circumference of the muzzle. Should only'a portion of the end of the barrel be prepared with the teeth, as described, it should for the convenience of the operator be on the under side next the ramrod or between the ramrod and bayonet. Having the barrel thus provided with teeth, the operator lays the cartridge across the end of the barrel, the end to be torn or out being held toward him, allowing a small portion of the cartridge to project over the cutter toward him. It is now pressed downward upon the cutter and at the same time pressed inward toward the bore or mouth of the gun, and by this means torn or cut open, and the break in the cartridge is thus brought directly over the bore or mouth of the gun, into which the contents of the cartridge are deposited.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Providing a portion or the whole of the end or muzzle of the gun-barrel with teeth or otherwise rendering the same rough, as and for the purpose herein set forth and described.

WM; WHITEHEAD, G. MILES. 

